The Prince of the Dead
by Lady Neeko
Summary: "Some people believe that Vincent Rizzoli-Isles has a skewed idea of death." Rizzles, future fic.


**Title: **_Prince of the Dead_

**Pairing:** _Rizzles, don't like, don't read._  
><strong>Rating:<strong> _G_  
><strong>Disclaimer<strong>: _All television shows, movies, books, and other copyrighted material referred to in this work, and the characters, settings, and events thereof, are the properties of their respective owners. As this work is an interpretation of the original material and not for-profit, it constitutes fair use. Reference to real persons, places, or events are made in a fictional context, and are not intended to be libelous, defamatory, or in any way factual._

**Summary:** _Some people believe that Vincent Rizzoli-Isles has a skewed idea of death._

**Author's Note: **_Just a bit of fluffy baby!fic. Might have more to come. _

* * *

><p>"Mommy? When I die, will you cut <em>me<em> open and look at _my_ insides?"

Some people believe that Vincent Rizzoli-Isles has a skewed idea of death. They believe that he is too desensitized to it, as well as to other horrors of the world. Jane tends to disagree, but Maura can't help but wonder if bringing the four year old into a morgue when daycare is closed for holidays is actually a really bad idea. Especially when he looks up at her with his big brown Rizzoli eyes, swinging his little feet as he sits on what has been dubbed "the dead person table", asking her questions like _that. _

Hesitating, as she often does when he asks her a question, the literal answers that fill her brain having to be pushed aside for a more appropriate answer to give a child, she takes a moment to regard the sleeping eighteen-month-old in the carrier on the floor beside her. She lost herself in a moment of fond memories of when Vinny was as young as her daughter is now; an easier time when all Maura had to do was love him and he loved her back, before he learned to speak and throw her off guard with questions she didn't know how to answer.

He's still staring at her expectantly, his eyes beginning to narrow just like Jane's do when she's about to demand attention. Maura's heart begins to beat a little faster; she always had a fear of people, preferring to work with the dead ones instead, and she's ashamed to admit that in that moment, she's a little afraid of her own son and the way his life depends on the very words that she chooses to leave her mouth. He's much too impressionable for her liking, and she's already beginning to fear that his "Queen of the Dead" mother has already... screwed him up, for lack of a better word.

_No, sweetie. I'd be too close to the corpse to be able to perform an unbiased autopsy. It would never be allowed. _Is the first answer she comes up with, and the technicality of it causes her to tremble a little more. _You're not going to die. Ever. _Is the second answer that floats around in her head, but she can feel the early onset of a panic attack at the thought of telling him what she knows is a lie.

So she does the third thing that comes into her mind: she deflects.

"Want to go see if your Mama is done with her paperwork? I'm ready to go home, and I know you're probably tired of being cooped down here, too."

"No. I like it down here. Mommy, do you think Mama caught any bad guys today?" he asks her, holding out his hands. It's a gesture he's using just to get her to help him off the table, not to be held. He never was a cuddler, very unlike his baby sister, and Maura often found herself wishing he would just sit still in her arms for a moment. Though, she supposed, that's what she would get, begging for a little Rizzoli baby, and for all her complaining during his squirming in his early years of life, she still wouldn't change a thing.

She takes both his hands and steadies him as he jumps down from the table, and she kneels down to his level. "What do I always tell you?" she asks him with a smile.

His eyes light up. "Mama _always_ catches all the bad guys."

* * *

><p>"Mama!" He bolts through making his way towards Jane's desk, but is intercepted by Barry Frost (who Vinny has dubbed Uncle Barry, though no one really told him to do so), who picks him up and holds him upside down. "Ah! Put me down!"<p>

"You surrender?"

"Never!"

"Then nope. Not putting you down."

"Mama! Help me!"

"Frost, put my kid down," she calls from across the room, and finally looks up from her file, getting ready for the bullet that is Vinny once Frost does let him go.

Before his little feet even touch the ground, just like predicted, he takes off, and she is almost knocked over by the force of her son. "Jesus, Vin, you're getting stronger by the hour these days. Might have to tell that mom of yours to stop feeding you that organic crap. It's definitely making you too healthy. You need some junk food to stunt your growth."

"I heard that," Maura says as she enters the room, baby Sammy Jo, now awake, balanced on her hip. She makes her way over to Jane, who she hadn't seen since the night before, Jane having a much earlier shift than she today, and kisses her quickly on the lips. "I told your mother I'd bring them by during my lunch break. She's going to watch them until you get off later."

"Why can't I stay and work with you, mommy?" Vinny frowns, learning his destination for the rest of the day.

"Because I need to work, and you need to play, and we can't do both in the morgue."

Vinny pouts the same way Jane does when she doesn't get her way, and it only makes Maura's heart melt. She's in for it when her son is old enough to realize just how much his Rizzoli traits have her wrapped around his little finger, the same way the mother who gave him his genes does.

Jane simply shakes her head and holds out her hands. "Gimme my Mini Maura. I haven't cuddled with my Sammy Jo in much too long for my liking."

Maura hands their daughter over, and Jane sits her on the desk in front of her, her arms wrapped around the little girl's waist. Sammy Jo, though not much of a verbal child yet, is an extremely inquisitive one. Jane can tell even now, as the baby silently observes the room and everything around her, that her daughter is going to want to know everything about the world, just like Maura already does. "This one? She's got an eye for detail, I bet you. Make a good detective."

"A curious mind is a gift for any career, Jane," Maura replies.

"Do I have a curious mind, Mommy?" Vinny asks.

"You have a great mind, Vin, and can also be a good cop," Jane responds for her.

"I'd rather be a dead person doctor like Mama."

Jane raises an eyebrow. "Seriously?"

"Medical Examiner, Vinny," Maura responds. "And, I'm flattered, but there's something discerning about my four year old son wanting to...well..."

"Cut open dead bodies?" Frost finishes for her.

Jane just smiles. It's not about the dead bodies, though Maura doesn't seem to ever really understand that. Their oldest son idolizes his mom in a way that makes Jane happier than she ever thought she would be at the thought that her son more times than none prefers Maura. She finds it completely endearing the way he holds onto her every word. Besides, she fully intends to make Sammy Jo her protege, Mini Maura or not, since Vinny has decided to be her wife's.

"Didn't realize it was family day," Korsak says, entering the room.

"Probably because you don't have a family outside of a bunch of cats to bring," Frost pipes in.

"I'd never have guessed it'd only take the Doc and some kids to turn Janie into such a softie," Korsak says, ignoring Frost's comment.

Jane rolls her eyes. "Bite me."

This prompts a laugh from Vinny, and Maura takes that as her cue, glaring at her wife. "On _that _note, it's off to your Nonna's house." Vinny groans, and Maura takes the baby back from Jane. "Maa!" she fusses for a moment, before settling into Maura's arms. "Say bye, guys. You'll see mama later."

"Bye mama! Bye Uncle Barry! Bye Uncle Vince!" Vinny calls to them all, following his mom as she begins her exit.

"Bye bye!" Sammy Jo calls out, repeating her older brother.

"Catch the bad guys, Ma!" is his parting words.

Jane smiles and gets back to the paperwork on her desk that was forgotten the moment her family had come into the room. It's a different kind of chaos than the mess of papers in front of her, but it's the first time she can honestly say she would rather be with them than doing the job she has always loved more than anything.

"Korsak, look. Jane's got her dreamy face on again."

"Seriously, who'd have thought a couple of kids would have reduced tough ol' Rizzoli to mush."

"Ha. Ha. Shut up and get back to work."

Yeah, being turned into mush isn't really so bad after all.


End file.
